Washington - The entire top echelon of Newt Gingrich's presidential campaign resigned on Thursday, a stunning mass exodus that left his bid for the Republican nomination in tatters.

But the former House speaker vowed defiantly to remain a candidate.

"I am committed to running the substantive, solutions-oriented campaign I set out to run earlier this spring," the Gingrich said in a posting to his Facebook page shortly after the 16 aides resigned. "The campaign begins anew Sunday in Los Angeles."

Rick Tyler, Gingrich's spokesman, said that he, campaign manager Rob Johnson and senior strategists had all quit, along with aides in the early primary and caucus states of Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina.

Other officials said Gingrich was informed that his entire high command was quitting in a meeting at his headquarters in Washington. They cited differences over the direction of the campaign.

Attack by stone and bottle throwing youths hours after King Abdullah II announced political reforms is denied by government

The motorcade of King Abdullah II of Jordan has reportedly come under attack from protesters throwing bottles and stones during a visit to a town in the country's south.

Abdullah was unhurt in the attack, which came hours after he bowed to popular demands for political reform, agreeing to have an elected prime minister from a parliamentary majority replace the current method of appointing the cabinet.

An unnamed security official said young people attacked the motorcade in two different areas in Tafila, 125 miles south of the capital Amman.

Cook County judge set bail at $50,000 today for a man charged with displaying a handgun to a convenience store clerk who refused to give him 99 cents.

According to court records, Christopher Tisley, 34, walked into a convenience store in the 2800 block of West Lawrence Avenue in the Ravenswood neighborhood around 3 a.m. Saturday and demanded the money. When the clerk refused, he displayed a gun.

Tisley, of the 5800 block of South Morgan Street, exited the store after a customer walked in, allowing the clerk to lock the door. Tisley then returned and repeatedly pounded on the windows of the store, court records state.

Much trumpeted legislation aimed at stamping out smoking in Greece, Europe's most tobacco addicted nation, has been declared a failure by health campaigners.

A lack of enforcement and widespread public defiance is being blamed for the Greeks' inability to conform to European standards.

As the BBC's Malcolm Brabant reports, Greek rebelliousness is one of the biggest obstacles.

Comment: Very interesting choice of words from this BBC reporter:

"This story tells you that there is a rich and dynamic scene of resistance running through the Greek national psyche. Many Greeks take an almost willful delight in defying authority. As it is this invisible, yet enormously powerful, rebellious force that the Greek government has to contend with as it tries to convince the population to accept its austerity programme."

Whether he realised it or not, this is exactly what it all boils down to with smoking. You have to wonder to what extent the Powers That Be are aware that economic austerity, shock doctrines and false-flag terrorist attacks are far more difficult to foist on populations that smoke!

For the control example, witness Ireland, whose population just rolled over when it was told that it would be piloting the fascist anti-smoking ban shortly after 9/11. When it came time for its economic shock therapy in late 2010, barely a whimper was raised in defiance.

But he said they were disappointed he did not "consider more fully the extent to which the state of mind in which Dr Kelly took his own life was induced by the failings of the Ministry of Defence in the exercise of the duty of care owed as his employer". Mrs Kelly, 58, may now sue the MoD for compensation.

Crucial questions left unanswered

The decision not to resume the inquest also came under fire last night, with experts warning that crucial questions about the death of the weapons inspector will be left unanswered. Dr Michael Powers, himself a coroner, said: 'I am concerned that the due process has not been followed.

"There evidently are contradictory views that were never put to the experts who gave evidence before Lord Hutton.

"In consequence the rigours that are normally undertaken at a coroner's inquest simply were not fulfilled."

The Kelly family's statement was their first detailed public response to the much-criticised Hutton report.

Comment: For more information regarding the David Kelly case, see this Sott link:

The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), a division of the federal government's National Institutes of Health (NIH), has spent $3,634,807 over the past decade funding research that involves getting monkeys to smoke and drink drugs such as PCP, methamphetamine (METH), heroin, and cocaine and then studying their behavior, including during different phases of the female monkeys' menstrual cycles.

The study also uses "interventions" as "treatment models" for monkeys who have been taught to use drugs.

NIDA wins CNSNews.com's "What Were They Smoking Award" - symbolized by The Golden Hookah (see video) - for sponsoring an outrageous government spending program that sends taxpayer dollars up in smoke.

Robert Adams at first thought someone was playing a trick when he saw the plastic bag filled with money lying next to a news box in a suburban strip mall.

Adams told WGN-AM's Greg Jarrett this morning that the bag sitting outside the Chase Bank branch in Rolling Meadow where he was headed late Monday afternoon to get some cash to buy a lunchtime burrito was filled with lots of bills--a little more than $17,000, as police later determined.

At the ATM, "I glanced down and I saw a clear plastic bag, with what looked like money in it, but I thought, you know, maybe someone's horsing around and put napkins in it or something or other," Adams said. "So I picked it up, but it was money."

The bag contained an ATM-style Chase receipt, so Adams brought it into the bank branch at 2641 Kirschoff Road, thinking an employee had dropped it.